Lonely Planet Vietnam (Vietnam, 6th Ed)
by Mason Florence, Robert Storey

List Price: $19.99
Amazon Price: $13.99
Paperback - 616 pages 6th edition (March 2001)
Lonely Planet; ISBN: 1864501898 ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.03 x 7.20 x 5.12

Amazon.com
From Antarctica to Zimbabwe, if you're going there chances are Lonely Planet has been there first. With a pithy and matter-of-fact writing style, these guides are guaranteed to calm the nerves of first-time world travelers, while still listing off-the-beaten-path finds sure to thrill even the most jaded globetrotters. Lonely Planet has been perfecting its guidebooks for nearly 30 years, and as a result has experience and know-how similar to an older sibling's "been there" advice. The original backpacker's bible, the LP series has recently widened its reach. While still giving insights for the low-budget traveler, the books now list a wide range of accommodations and itineraries for those with less time than money.

Lonely Planet offers a fully updated guide to the natural and cultural wonders of a country of sublime beauty. This book will help you discover Vietnam's pristine beaches, lush rainforests, best highland treks, as well as the colorful nightlife of Saigon. It also includes places to stay and eat for a wide range of budgets. Highlights include special sections on visiting hill tribes and language. --Kathryn True --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Book Description
Culturally rich and steeped in centuries - old charm, Vietnam's appeal lies in its unique artistic, religious and architectural heritage set against a backdrop of diverse natural beauty. Awaken your senses as this guide takes you through colourful, bustling markets and serene temples to palm-fringed beaches and rugged mountains, introducing some of the world's friendliest people along the way.

Features: over 80 updated maps, including colour country map with highlights; details on navigating...

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Footprint Vietnam Handbook: The Travel Guide
by John Colet, Joshua Eliot

Amazon Price: $16.95
Paperback - 384 pages 2nd edition (October 1999)
NTC Publ Group; ISBN: 0844221937 ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.98 x 8.27 x 4.99

Editorial Reviews
Ingram
Vietnam after the war--this guide shows readers how to get from Hanoi to Saigon and what to expect in this recuperating country. An analysis is given of the influence of the war. John Colet lives and works in Saigon and speaks Vietnamese. Joshua Eliot lives in England but is a regular visitor to Southeast Asia. 46 maps. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The publisher, Liz Taylor , February 7, 2000
Welcome to Footprint!
Dear Fellow Traveller, Thank you for checking out the Vietnam Handbook. Footprint are an independent British publisher based in Bath. We specialise in providing travellers with guide books that are second to none for accurate, up-to-date and relevant information. You will find that most of our guides are simply the most comprehensive available with in-depth commentary on history, culture and customs as well as practical travel information (such as where to stay, places to eat and getting from A...

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The Rough Guide Vietnam (2nd Edition)
by Rough Guides (Editor), Jan Dodd, Mark Lewis

Amazon Price: $18.95
Paperback - 544 pages 2nd edition (December 1998)
Rough Guides; ISBN: 1858283396 ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.86 x 7.77 x 5.11

Book Description
INTRODUCTION

History weighs heavily on Vietnam. For more than a decade, reportage of the war that racked this slender country portrayed it as a netherworld of savagery and slaughter; and even after the American War ended it was further pigeon-holed by Hollywood's seamless chain of combat movies. Yet, only twenty-odd years after the war's end, this incredibly resilient nation is beginning to emerge from the shadows: access is now easier than ever, and the country has re-invented its old-style communist system as a free market economy that encourages contact. As the number of tourists finding their way here soars, the word is out that this is a land not of bomb craters and army ordnance, but of shimmering paddy fields and sugar-white beaches, full-tilt cities and venerable pagodas - often overwhelming in its sheer beauty.

The speed with which Vietnam's population of some 76 million has been able to put the bitter events of its recent past behind it, and focus its gaze so steadfastly on the future, comes as a surprise to visitors expecting to encounter shell-shocked resentment of the West and war fatigue. It wasn't always like this, however. The reunification of North and South Vietnam that ended twenty years of bloody civil war, in 1975, was followed by a decade or so of hardline centralist economic rule from which only the shake-up of doi moi, Vietnam's equivalent of perestroika, could awaken the country. By lifting the lid off private enterprise, doi moi has, since its conception in 1986, signalled a renaissance for Vietnam, and today a high fever of commerce grips the nation, as citizens clamour to claim their slice of the pie while the good times roll. Needless to say, the shift to a market economy would have been only notional without accompanying shifts in international relations - in particular 1994's ending of the US trade embargo, which released the log jam of foreign investment; and the diplomatic rehabilitation that ensued once Vietnamese forces were pulled out of Cambodia in 1989, culminating in the restoration of US-Vietnamese diplomatic relations in July 1995. From a tourist's point of view, it's a great time to come - thanks to an intoxicating sense of vitality and optimism, not to mention the chance to witness a country in profound flux. What's more, after a decade and a half of isolation, there's a huge warmth and curiosity shown toward visitors by the Vietnamese, who tend to pounce voraciously on any chance to interact with foreigners.

Inevitably, that's not the whole story. Doi moi is an economic policy, not a magic spell, and life, for most of the population, remains hard. Indeed, doi moi has introduced its own problems, with the adoption of a market economy predictably polarizing the gap between rich and poor. Despite the numerous Japanese, Taiwanese and Korean assembly plants springing up, average monthly incomes for city dwellers remain at around US$50, while in the poorest provinces workers may scrape by on as little as US$15 a month - a difference that amply illustrates the growing gulf between urban and rural Vietnam.

As you might expect, the long-standing antipathy and deep psychological divide between the north and south endures. This was around long before the American War, and is engrained in the bedrock of Vietnamese culture. Northerners are typically considered reticent, dour, law-abiding, and lacking the dynamism and entrepreneurial know-how of their more worldly-wise southern compatriots. A cartoonist's caricature of a southerner would most likely depict a flashy wheeler-dealer, shades on, barking into a mobile phone as he weaves his Honda Dream through the busy streets; while his northern counterpart would appear in green army tunic and helmet, tootling along on his duck-laden bicycle. Many visitors find more than enough to amuse them in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and the other major centres; but despite the cities' allure, it's the country's striking landscape that most impresses. Vietnam occupies a narrow strip of land that hugs the eastern borders of Cambodia and Laos, hemmed in by rugged mountains to the west, and by the South China Sea to the east. To the north and south of its narrow waist, it dovetails out into the splendid deltas of the Red River and the Mekong, and it's in these regions that you'll encounter the paddy fields, dragonflies, buffaloes and conical-hatted farmers that constitute the classic image of Vietnam. In stark contrast to the pancake-flat riceland of the deltas, Ha Long Bay's labyrinthine network of limestone outcrops loom dramatically out of the Gulf of Tonkin - a magical spectacle in the early morning mist. None of Vietnam's mountains reach particularly impressive heights, so any trip to the remote upland regions of central and northern Vietnam is far likelier to focus upon the ethnic minorities who reside there. Elaborate tribal costumes, age-old customs and communal longhouses await those visitors game enough to trek into the sticks - though if you're fortunate enough to sample the legendary hilltribe hospitality, you may find that the knockout rice wine they brew leaves memories hazy. As for wildlife, the discovery, in the early Nineties, of a previously unknown species of ox, the saola, speaks volumes for the wealth of Vietnam's biodiversity - that, despite the decade-long pasting the country received from American bombers - and makes the improving access to the country's several national parks all the more gratifying.

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Culture and Customs of Vietnam: (Culture and Customs of Asia)
by Mark W. McLeod, Nguyen Thi Dieu

Amazon Price: $45.00
Hardcover - 224 pages (June 30, 2001)
Greenwood Publishing Group; ISBN: 0313304858

Book Description
Vietnam is increasingly opening up to the West, and society is in flux between tradition and modernity, and socialism and capitalism. Americans have distanced themselves from the Vietnam War now, and Culture and Customs of Vietnam fills a need to learn about the country, which has also evolved. Readers will find that this is the only general book on Vietnamese culture in English written by specialists. McLeod and Nguyen, historians specializing in Vietnam engagingly show the various forces of Vietnamese culture in narrative chapters on the land, people, and language; history and institutions; thought and religion; literature; art and architecture; cuisine; family, marriage, gender, and youth culture; festivals and leisure activities, and performing arts.

About the Author
MARK W. MCLEOD is Associate Professor of History at the University of Delaware.
NGUYEN THI DIEU, born in Vietnam, is Associate Professor of History at Temple University.

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Catfish and Mandala : A 2 Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam
by Andrew X. Pham

List Price: $14.00
Amazon Price: $11.20
Paperback - 344 pages (September 2000)
Picador USA; ISBN: 0312267177 ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.94 x 8.27 x 5.50

Amazon.com
A great memoirist can burnish even an ordinary childhood into something bright--see, for instance, Annie Dillard's An American Childhood. So what about a really good writer with access to a dramatic and little-documented story? This is the case with Catfish and Mandala, Vietnamese American Andrew X. Pham's captivating first book, which delves fearlessly into questions of home, family, and identity. The son of Vietnamese parents who suffered terribly during the Vietnam War and brought their family to America when he was 10, Pham, on the cusp of his 30s, defied his parents' conservative hopes for him and his engineering career by becoming a poorly paid freelance writer. After the suicide of his sister, he set off on an even riskier path to travel some of the world on his bicycle. In the grueling, enlightening year that followed, he pedaled through Mexico, the American West Coast, Japan, and finally his far-off first land, Vietnam.

The story, with some of a mandala's repeated symbolic motifs, works on several levels at once. It is an exploration into the meaning of home, a descriptive travelogue, and an intimate look at the Vietnamese immigrant experience. There are beautifully illuminated flashbacks to the experience of fleeing Vietnam and to an earlier, more innocent childhood. While Pham's stern father, a survivor of Vietcong death camps, regrets that Pham has not been a respectful Vietnamese son, he also reveals that he wishes he himself had been more "American" for his kids, that he had "taken [them] camping." Catfish and Mandala is a book of double-edged truths, and it would make a fascinating study even in less able hands. In those of the adventurous, unsentimental Pham, it is an irresistible story. --Maria Dolan --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist
Perhaps the most American writing theme is the road trip as search for identity. Pham has written a memoir (and, in the process, a travelogue) that will be widely appealing. His family immigrated to the U.S. after escaping from Vietnam, where his father had been held in a communist "re-education camp" after the war. Once in the U.S., his parents worked grueling hours to afford to educate their children. During those years Pham's sister ran away after being beaten by her father, and when she...

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Passport Vietnam : Your Pocket Guide to Vietnamese Business, Customs & Etiquette (Passport to the World)
by Jeffrey E. Curry, Molly Thurmond, Chinh T. Nguyen, Tom Watson (Illustrator), Barbara Szerlip (Editor)

Amazon Price: $6.95
Paperback - 96 pages (June 1997)
World Trade Pr; ISBN: 1885073259 ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.31 x 7.01 x 4.29

Book Description
Comprehensive guide to the culture, etiquette and communication of Vietnam.

The publisher, O'Reilly and Associates
Success in international business is not just about your product and service, or about terms and delivery schedules. Success is about people, traditions and relationships. Passport to the World books are comprehensive guides to understanding a country's people, culture, etiquette and communication styles. Passport Vietnam will help you: Avoid cultural faux pas Learn about Vietnam's values and beliefs Understand the reasons behind the actions Develop an effective negotiating style Don't leave...

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The Rough Guide to Vietnam
by Jan Dodd

List Price: $18.95
Amazon Price: $15.16
Paperback - 512 pages 3rd edition (November 6, 2000)
aRough Guides; ISBN: 185828550X ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.98 x 7.77 x 5.08

Rough Guide better than Lonely Planet, Footprint, January 11, 2001
Reviewer: amitsolomon from New York, NY USA
Just came back from a three week trip to Vietnam with three books: the Lonely Planet, the Rough Guide, and Footprint Handbook.

The Rough Guide is the best guidebook around for the country. It is superior to the Lonely Planet guide in the breadth and depth of coverage and especially its accuracy. I liked LP for other countries but here they did a very poor job.

I have not found even one instance where Lonely Planet provided information that Rough did not have. If you are traveling to the north, you may want to consider reading Footprint before you leave -- it has some interesting information.

Also, all hotels -- even the top ones -- can be negotiated down in price. Send them an e-mail and ask for special rates, corporate rates, etc. You can stay at the Metropole in Hanoi for less than half their rack rate.

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Vietnam
by Jacques Nepote, Xavier Guillaume, Anita Sach, Jacques Nespote

List Price: $19.95
Amazon Price: $13.96
Paperback - 240 pages 2nd edition (March 1, 1999)
Odyssey Publications; ISBN: 9622173551 ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.63 x 8.05 x 5.54

National Geographic Traveler, February 2000
These handsome, well-edited books from a Hong Kong-based publisher cover places few other guidebooks go.... The writers are particularly well-chosen....Odyssey fans tend to be adventurous travelers with a literary bent. If you're lucky enough to find an Odyssey Guide to where you're going, grab it.

Book Description
Vietnam is a land of staggering beauty with wild picturesque mountains and a coastline that stretches almost endlessly along the South China Sea. Although the signs of destruction are never far from view, the country's inextricable association with the conflict between the North and South has finally been laid to rest, and it is once again possible to appreciate Vietnam for the richness of its traditional culture and the exuberance of its diverse people. The Odyssey Guide to Vietnam provides...

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Pagodas, Gods and Spirits of Vietnam
by Ann Helen Unger, Walter Unger (Editor)

Amazon Price: $50.00
Hardcover - 208 pages (October 1997)
Thames & Hudson; ISBN: 0500018030 ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.94 x 11.81 x 9.09

Book Description
This book reveals through text and illustrations the extraordinarily varied and prolific religions of Vietnam. Despite decades of government discouragement of all religion, the deeply anchored faiths of the Vietnamese people have continued to flourish, and indeed to increase their hold on believers. Everywhere between the Red River in the north and the Mekong Delta in the south, sacrificial offerings are heaped upon altars, hundreds of thousands of the faithful stream again on pilgrimages, and there is a regular increase in the request- and thanksgiving-rites in the chuas, dinhs, and dens, the pagodas, village ceremony halls, and hero temples all over the land. In most guide books, Vietnam is described as a Buddhist country; but in contrast to their neighbors in Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia, the Vietnamese follow a Buddhism that is far from pure. The faith and its teachings were taken over from India about 2,000 years ago, but Vietnamese Buddhism was mingled with more ancient indigenous ancestor cults and spirit beliefs suitable to local customs and needs. Other strains were also absorbed: elements of Hinduism as well as the teachings of Confucius and Taoism. The text by Ann Unger admirably explains this complex situation and shows how the great number of beautiful, serene religious buildings throughout the country reflect the multiple strands of the country's religious fabric. Walter Unger's arresting photographs document the architectural splendor of the buildings as well as the worshipers in a ground-breaking reportage of a country that for so long has been hidden from the rest of the world.

Ingram
In most guide books, Vietnam is described as a Buddhist country, but Vietnamese Buddhism is mingled with more ancient indigenous ancestor cults and spirit beliefs according to local customs and needs. This book reveals through text and illustrations the extraordinarily varied and prolific religions of Vietnam. 160 color illustrations.

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Shadows and Wind : A View of Modern Vietnam
by Robert Templer

List Price: $13.95
Amazon Price: $11.16
Paperback - 400 pages (September 1999)
Penguin USA (Paper); ISBN: 0140285970 ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.89 x 7.96 x 5.62

From Booklist
It is easy still for Americans to think of Vietnam as a war and not a country. No longer at war with the U.S., France, or China, modern Vietnam seems at war with itself. The re-education camps of the 1970s, where the South Vietnamese learned mainly about hunger and hoarding scarce food, have given way to creeping capitalism, continued cultural repression, and a corrupt Communist state. Vietnam has been only marginally able to share in the wealth of its Asian neighbors. The Communist government's schizophrenic economic policies, combined with a generation gap between the ruling party and the younger Vietnamese, have resulted in a people with little confidence in the government to better their lives. Templer profiles the role of the government in economic and cultural policies that are keeping Vietnam a backward country. Most interestingly, though, he examines the role of the determined Vietnamese people as they make inroads through tiny gaps in public policies to grow food in rural areas, build a life in the cities, and try to maintain their culture and religion. Marlene Chamberlain

From Kirkus Reviews
A journalist draws on his reporting for the French news agency Agence France-Presse for an incisive, evenhanded portrait of contemporary Vietnam. Templer begins with a rather testy survey of the literature, taking to task the now-famous group of American reporterswhose careers were made reporting on the Vietnam Warfor falling into the old trap of seeing Vietnamese as inscrutable Orientals. Templer does indeed correct this mistake by describing a complex but unmysterious country reminiscent of...

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Land of the Ascending Dragon : Rediscovering Vietnam
by Steve Raymer (Photographer), Paul Martin, Jack Smith (Introduction), Steven L. Raymer (Photographer)

Amazon Price: $32.00
Paperback - 192 pages (November 1, 1997)
Hastings House Pub; ISBN: 0803893965 ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.78 x 11.20 x 9.40

Book Description
Three Vietnam veterans rediscover this country of captivating beauty and fascinating cultural treasures.

Ingram
Two decades after the end of the Indochina War, three celebrated journalists with firsthand knowledge of Vietnam's troubled past remember its rich history, survey its remarkable present and future as Asia's newest economic tiger, and reveal its captivating beauty. 140 color photos. 30 b&w photos.

Vietnam is not just another name for war, July 28, 1998
Reviewer: A reader from Washington DC
The authors do an excellent job of transposing the "American Image" of Vietnam into the beautiful and complex country that it really is. It draws from that "American Image" rooted in the drama of the war years, and gradually leads us to a clearer understanding of just what the country is today (and what it was before the intensity of the U.S. involvement)and where it may go in the future. It is encouraging, and very hopeful, to see the country and its people re-anchored in their traditional values--in spite of the current relic of communism--and to appreciate the renewed emphasis on education, family, business, and integration into the world economy. Clearly, it has been a long hard row to hoe, but it is moving in the right direction. Jack Smith's introduction lays this out, and it is reenforced by the text and Mr. Raymer's revealing photographs. The result is a far better sense of place and people.

A five-star effort by all three guys!, July 21, 1998
Reviewer: A reader from Bloomington, Indiana
Jack Smith's introduction says it all -- Vietnam is a beautiful, peaceful land that is going places. Doing this book brought back a lot of memories and was a tonic for the soul. Enjoy it!

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Passage to Vietnam : Through the Eyes of Seventy Photographers
by Rick Smolan (Editor), Jennifer Erwitt (Contributor), Pico Iyer (Designer)

Amazon Price: $50.00
Hardcover - 224 pages (October 1994)
Against All Odds Productions; ISBN: 1885559003 ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.20 x 12.34 x 10.73

Amazon.com
A fascinating look at an ancient nation in the midst of dramatic change. Spectacular photographs and a detailed text present an intimate and comprehensive look at Vietnam. To create this unusual portrait, 70 photographers from fourteen countries were given unprecedented access to a country that is just now emerging from decades of war and isolationism.

Magnum photographer Bruno Barbey rides along with thousands of pilgrims down the Swallow River to the Perfume Pagoda. Pulitzer Prize-winner Jay Dickman travels to the northern highlands, where he photographs the ancient Hmong tribe. And former Life photographer Kick Swanson goes back to Vietnam for the first time since the war, photographing its lingering effects on the people of the Quang Tri Province.

The photographs are complemented by captions written by Fortune magazine editor Colin Leinster. In addition, noted travel writer Pico Iyer shares his impressions of a country just awakening from twenty years of isolation. Pulitzer Prize-winner Stanley Karnow explores the long struggle the Vietnamese have waged to preserve their homeland. And Vietnam Investment Review correspondent Peter Saidel gives an insider's look at Vietnam as socialism and commerce meet face to face.

A deeply cultural perspective on lifestyles, culture, values, March 13, 1997
Reviewer: A reader
Vietnam is one of the most picturesque countries and colorful cultures. Yet it remains as one of the least understood countries in the world, despite having been one of the most publicized. This photo journalistic journey allows pictures to speak volumes. Look into the eyes of the children, the lives of the rice farmers. The art, the economy, family and community interaction -- are all visible and life-like in this representation of life today in Vietnam

Entertainment Weekly says:, October 19, 1996
Reviewer: A reader
PASSAGE TO VIETNAM (Against All Odds/Interval Research, CD-ROM for PC and Mac, $39.95) With its 400 photos, hour of video, lilting indigenous music, and insightful essays, this landmark disc transports you to contemporary Vietnam, where pigs squawk, mothers tote babies on their backs, and peddlers hawk dried sea horses. This Passage, produced with Scorsese-like lushness by Rick Smolan, is no swanky animated program, but it is virtual reality of a high and literary nature because it makes you dream. Without wasting words, the photographers eloquently tell the stories behind their pictures--stories of people at work and play. Though we can't help but remember the horror of war, Passage helps us to see that time has begun its healing. A+ --Harold Goldberg

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Passage to Vietnam/Cd-Rom
by Rick Smolan, Jennifer Erwitt

Amazon Price: $39.95
Software Cd Rom edition (March 1995)
Platform:   Macintosh, Windows 95 / 98 / NT
Against All Odds Productions; ISBN: 188555902X ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.66 x 10.43 x 9.07

Ingram
The creator of the Day in the Life photography series takes users on assignment with the world's best photojournalists as they create an intimate portrait of today's Vietnam, 20 years after the end of the war.

By Matthew Hawn

PROS: Beautiful and haunting photojournalism displayed with an engaging and flexible interface; innovative use of QuickTime.
CONS: None.
COMPANY: Against All Odds Productions/Interval Research (800/558-3388, dept. 100).
LIST PRICE: CD-ROM $39.95, CD-book bundle $59.95.

Passage to Vietnam, a multimedia photojournalism project shot in one week in Vietnam in 1994, features the work of 70 photographers from magazines such as Newsweek, National Geographic, and Life. Together they've created a contemporary portrait of a place Americans know first as a war and only vaguely as a country.

The guiding force behind Passage to Vietnam is Rick Smolan, an experienced photographer and multimedia producer whose projects have included the Day in the Life series and one of the first real hits of the CD-ROM world–From Alice to Ocean. He guides the viewer through this hauntingly beautiful CD, reintroducing us to a country moving out from under the shadow of war. His narration provides a thread for us to follow through this amazing collection of photographs.

While the photojournalism here is first-rate, what makes Passage so special is the seamless integration of music, video, and text with the core photographs. As you click through the six topics, or "passages," that the photographers explored, Vietnamese music accompanies your tour. Credits for the photos appear alongside icons for audio and video clips offering context and a look at the stories behind the scenes. I particularly appreciated being able to toggle the icons and other interface elements on and off to see the images without distractions.

The photojournalists' work is stunning, but equal credit is due to ad-hoc Interactive, creators of the interface. A cube floating in the lower-right corner of your display offers navigation tools, built-in help, a bookmark feature, and highly customizable preferences for viewing and interacting with the information. There are keyboard shortcuts for all tools, and with more than eight hours of material, a respite from mousing is welcome.

Passage makes extraordinary use of Apple's QuickTime technology, containing over an hour of video of the photographers, both on assignment and discussing their work. Video and still images are often blended, so photographers seem to step into their photos as they discuss them. By breaking out of the tiny window we expect from CD-ROMs, Passage shows us just how revolutionary QuickTime can be.

The Last Word Passage to Vietnam is an amazing work. It's innovative, well crafted, and sets a standard for multimedia projects that won't soon be equaled. Few CD-ROM projects offer such exceptional content, and fewer still are able to match this seamless integration of materials. Passage to Vietnam is clearly one of the best CD-ROMs of the year, and I can't recommend it more highly.

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